Release 3.6.12. Fixes for movie playback. Fixes for hang on save

[sean]

This release fixes playback of movies.

You now have a 20fps check box. When this is checked , the speed slider is ignored.
This will lock down playback.

Convert movies for play
ffmpeg -r 20 -i frozen.mp4 -s 50x50 f-%d.png

resample movie into 20fps
input file is frozen.mp4
resize movie into 50x50 pixels
output files will be f-1.png, f-2.png,f-3.png .etc

If 20fps is not checked then you have functionality like back in november, speed slider allows speeding up or slowing down movie.
There is one addtional add to this. a speed setting of 10 is exactly 20fps.

Also in this release, there were some bug fixes that might have caused hangs on save.

Notice , entire content is from Dan Kulp. Thanks Dan!

XLIGHTS/NUTCRACKER RELEASE NOTES:
3.6.12 Dec 5, 2014
    -bug (dkulp) If Column 1 renders really fast, it could hang on save due to Thread 2 waiting for
      information from thread 1 which is already gone. This could cause hangs on save.
    -bug (dkulp) Fix some thread safety issues in RenderCircle, RenderText, RenderPicture. This would have muged the effects.
    -test (dkulp) Try flipping to a busy wait for TextEffect rendering to see if that prevents some crashes/hangs
    -enh (dkulp) RenderPictures now has a 20FPS check box so rendering can just advance per frame if the movie is already in 20fps.   
      If unchecked, the "Speed" slider adjusts the speed (with 10 being "normal", <10 slower, >10 faster). A speed of 10 = 20fps.
3.6.11 Dec 4, 2014
    -enh (dkulp) Add a "Settings" menu.  First setting: ability to disable the multi-threaded saves. 
         When disable, all is rendered on the main thread.  Slower, but maybe safer.
         With this change, there are now four ways to save
         1) Normal - threaded
         2) Normal + Fast Save - threaded but only rendering the stuff that has changed
         3) Threading disabled (settings menu) - all rendering is on the main thread, one column at a time.   
         4) Threading disabled + fast save - all rendering is on the main thread,
            one column at a time, but starting with the top left most changed cell.
    -bug (dkulp) When "Play" hits the bottom of the grid, the "Stop" button wasn't changed back to "Play"
   -bug (sean) Ripple effect was not calculating corners correctly
   -enh (sean) Added thickness slider and 3D button to Ripple.

[drlucas]

neat....i'll play around with this new movie setting over the weekend. I'm also spending time with Adobe premiere as well so should be an entire movie weekend. Perhaps i should make some popcorn!!

[drlucas]

Crashed on the Mac with the attached....I created a 6x45 vertical matrix today from some flex strips and went to add some text to it and it crashed on me when I went to save. See attached. My guess is it has to do with the Ripple effect based on that it gave me another error related to that.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[drlucas]

Another minor issue, I can't select a txt file with the piano effect. it's gray'ed out.

[drlucas]

I also can not export the file as a fseq file, it crashes when I try to do that in the nutcracker tab. I can however convert the file using the convert tab.

[Steve Gase]

I think I'm observing a resource leak in the NC effect viewer...  (in the Nutcracker tab).

For 2 nights in a row I have kept the effect viewer running with the Megatree50 model...  with each new morning I've found xlights has died. 

I can't say that it started in 3.6.12 -- I didn't attempt this with other recent versions.

Unfortunately, it might be related to a particular effect.  I had another effect from the same fileset that ran all night without issue.  I'll try this on a couple computers over a few days -- with different effects -- to see if I can narrow it down.



[attachment deleted by admin]

[drlucas]

I also can not export the file as a fseq file, it crashes when I try to do that in the nutcracker tab. I can however convert the file using the convert tab.

I just tried a save in 3.6.13 and it didn't crash this time on me. Might be fixed now (?) or just was a random occurrence. will try a few more things over the next day or two. Really didn't do much with the movies last weekend. Will share a little movie video from my matrix just to show off in a bit.

I also still cannot select any txt files from Piano